OneAgent full-stack monitoring available for AIX in public beta release

Dynatrace is proud to announce the public beta release of OneAgent full-stack monitoring for AIX (available with OneAgent v1.141 and cluster 142). This announcement comes six months following the general release of AIX support for Java & IBM/Apache HTTP Server and is an important milestone towards our providing end-to-end monitoring of applications and services hosted on the AIX operating system.

The AIX full-stack OneAgent has been available to select customers through an Early Access Program over the past several months. We’ve gathered a lot of valuable feedback. Thank you to all our customers and partners who participated in the EAP!

What’s included

Full stack OneAgent for AIX comes with a greatly improved installation script, similar to the script used with OneAgent for Linux. For full details, see How do I install OneAgent on AIX?

The new version of OneAgent offers additional functionality that supplements and extends the monitoring data already available via the deep code-monitoring modules for Java and IBM/Apache HTTP (to learn more about the monitoring capabilities of the previous version of OneAgent, see this earlier blog post). The new monitoring capabilities support the native LPAR virtualization of AIX hosts.

Host performance measures

OneAgent for AIX is capable of performing a number of host-level measurements individually for all instrumented AIX hosts. Host performance is tracked across multiple Dynatrace pages, beginning with high-level health metrics on the home dashboard and extending down to dedicated pages for each of your hosts. For details on available metrics, see host performance measures.

In particular, the following metrics are collected.

CPU and memory measurements with per process resolution

In addition to basic CPU metrics available in the beta release of AIX support for Java and Apache, the full-stack OneAgent also provides more advanced CPU measurements, divided into Idle, User, System and I/O wait categories.

The CPU and memory measurements are provided per host, but are also available with higher granularity. The measurements are also performed for all the processes detected by OneAgent on the monitored AIX host, including, but not limited to, Java and Apache/IHS processes.

Network measurements with per interface and per process resolution

OneAgent for AIX collects a number of network metrics: input and output traffic measured in bytes and packets, retransmissions, as well as connectivity.

In addition to collecting network metrics for the host, OneAgent also identifies all contributing interfaces and provides a detailed breakdown of the measurements:

Disk measurements with per disk resolution

Disk metrics are collected for each discovered disk. Disk metrics are reported as filesystem mount points for easier identification.

Full-stack and cloud-infrastructure monitoring modes

OneAgent for AIX works in both full-stack and cloud-infrastructure monitoring modes. Monitoring modes are defined during OneAgent installation. You can however change the monitoring mode later via Host settings > Monitoring mode. For more details, see cloud-infrastructure monitoring mode.

Automatic updates of all monitoring modules

Full-stack OneAgent for AIX comes equipped with an automatic update feature. Following initial deployment of OneAgent, all subsequent updates are performed automatically, with no human assistance. Similarly, as with OneAgent for Windows and Linux, you can specify that a specific version of OneAgent be deployed to your hosts, either via a global setting or per-host configuration. For details, see OneAgent automatic updates.

Limitations, as compared to OneAgent for Linux

While both AIX and Linux belong to the Unix family of Operating Systems, they have evolved separately over the last 20 years and consequently are significantly different from one other. The source code of OneAgent for AIX was inspired by the source code of OneAgent for Linux, however in many cases, it had to be rewritten from scratch.

The following section lists the main limitations of OneAgent for AIX, as compared to OneAgent for Linux.

No automatic deep code-monitoring injection. Although OneAgent for AIX comes with deep monitoring modules for Java and Apache/IHS, the instrumentation of these technologies is not completely automatic. Please see How do I install OneAgent on AIX? for details on OneAgent deployment.

No parity in the selection of deep monitoring modules. OneAgent for AIX comes equipped with deep monitoring modules for Java and Apache/IHS. We are actively working on additional modules and will be releasing them gradually as they become ready for Early Access Programs, and public betas. Stay tuned for more announcements on this topic.

No log module. As of the release of this public beta, the log module is not yet available for AIX, but this is something we have planned. Stay tuned for more announcements.

No plugin module. The only plugin available at the time of this release is the JMX plugin. The remaining plugins, as well as the plugin module, are not part of this release.

No non-root mode. We recently released a public beta of non-root operating mode for OneAgent for Linux. For details, see OneAgent new and upcoming improvements. Currently this mode of deployment is not available for AIX.

As of now, not all infrastructure-monitoring events are reported. Most importantly the events for deployment changes (automatic instrumentation of deep code-monitoring), PGI crashes, and CPU measurement events aren’t sent. We will be working on improving events coverage in upcoming releases of OneAgent for AIX.

Bartek is Senior Technical Product Manager at Dynatrace. He's worked on APM and ALM products for over 17 years. His background is in software development, but he's also passionate about user experience, process optimization, and delivering value to customers. Outside of work, Bartek enjoys travel, photography, jogging, and is CEO of a retro gaming and computing society that organizes public events and exhibitions. Proud father of three daughters.